Billings method pioneer dead at 89

Published: 02 April 2007

Natural family pioneer and co-inventor of the method that bears his
name, Dr John Billings, died in Melbourne yesterday following a short
illness.

The Herald-Sun
reports that Dr Billings with his wife Dr Evelyn Billings pioneered the
Billings Ovulation Method in the 1950s, a system that helps women to
identify their fertile and non-fertile states based on their menstrual
cycle.

Dr Billings, a neurologist who served with the Australian
Imperial Force as a doctor in New Guinea during World War II, studied
in London following the war but returned to practice in Melbourne.

He
later became the head of the neurology department of St Vincent's
Hospital, the clinical dean of its clinical school at the University of
Melbourne and, from the late 1960s until recent years, the hospital's
consulting neurologist.

But the work for which he was most
famous began in 1953, when he was approached by the Catholic Church's
Catholic Marriage Guidance Bureau to devise a method for couples to
regulate their fertility.

Dr Billings and his wife have since
spent more than 50 years researching fertility, and establishing WOOMB
(The World Organisation Ovulation Method Billings International) in
Melbourne as the centre for research and teaching the method around the
world.

WOOMB director Marian Corkill said the Billings Method
was taught in more than 100 countries including China, where it was the
only natural fertility method accepted by the Government.

"His work was incredibly important, it has had a global effect.

"Australia
has given people around the world a much greater understanding of
fertility and it has given couples the opportunity to use that
knowledge in a natural way to achieve or avoid pregnancy."

Dr Billings travelled the world to establish teaching centres and train teachers to educate women and couples about the method.

He was made a member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1991 and also won a Papal knighthood for his work.

He is survived by his wife Evelyn, eight of his nine children and a growing family of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Better NFP promotion needed: Filipino lay leader says

Meanwhile,
in the Philippines, Juliet Rivera, a lay leader of the Committee on
Family Life Apostolate for Kalookan diocese, which includes Malabon
city, has said that the Church must be more pro-active in promoting
natural family planning methods.

Speaking at a public family
planning event, Ms Rivera regretted a "cafeteria approach" to family
planning promoted by NGOs which suggested "that artificial
contraception is better because it's easier and more practical."

Rivera told UCA News that "activities like (the family planning event) must be a wake-up call for all members of the Church, to be proactive."

She
submitted a proposal paper in late 2006 to Bishop Deogracias Iniguez of
Kalookan indicating the committee's plans for "family and life centres
in every parish," she said.

The diocese has 26 parishes.
According to Ms Rivera, the bishop welcomed the suggestion. She hopes
that "through our commission's new priest-coordinator, we can
creatively propagate NFP."